As you probably already know, I have written (with help from Jacob Michael and Simon McDonaugh) a rather lengthy critique of the doctrinal errors and outright heresies contained in the official Bible of the Catholic Church in America, the NAB. Now I want this critique to go global. I want to find out what is being taught to Catholics around the world; I want to find out whether they are being fed anathema abroad as well as at home, and if so, to expose this. This is why I need the help of people who speak various foreign languages: Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Italian, etc.

 

If you would like to contribute to this project, the first thing I would advise you to do is to write to the Catholic Church in your country of choice, and ask them what version of the Bible they use for their lectionaries and sell at parish their bookstores, and in general what version is widely circulated among the nation's Catholics. Then, obtain a copy of this Bible.

Once you have done so, the next task is to look for modernism and, if you find it, refute it with scholarly argument and citations from the Fathers and the Magisterium of Holy Mother Church. There are a few places where I would advise you to direct your search. Check the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Check out the places where non-Christians typically accuse the Bible of error and contradiction (see the Biblical difficulties sections at carm.org and apologeticspress.org, for example, oh and try not to laugh at CARM's "reconciliation" of James 2:24 with Romans) and see if the commentary follows suit. Pay close attention to what the commentary says in passages about Mary, especially the "who is my mother" scene in Mark. Find out if, in passages where someone is recorded as having predicted the future (Daniel, Solomon, Christ especially), it claims that the book in question was written after the "prophecy" had already been fulfilled. Look at all the places where Christ appears at face value to say the world would end within a few decades, and see if the commentary says that He was mistaken. In passages which command wars, find out if the commentary says that this was not God's will. You might also want to see if the commentary tries to wiggle around Christ's clear teaching that many enter the gate to perdition and few enter the gate to eternal life. La Nueva Biblia Latinoamerica does this, for example. Also see if the introductions to the various books embrace the traditional Christian view of the date of composition and authorship or the views of secular higher critics. See whether the introduction to the Pentateuch endorses the documentary hypothesis, whether the introduction to Daniel says that it was written during the Maccabean rebellion, whether Matthew is said to be a compilation of Mark, Q, and a few other traditions and flights of fancy which the nameless, faceless author saw fit to throw into the mix, etc.

If you do not find anything too objectionable in this Bible, then that is certainly good news, and we can all pray "God grant them many years" for the bishops of that nation and move on to other battles. If you do, however, please submit a report along the lines of the NAB critique which is posted on this site.

All interested parties should contact me at hananiah5@yahoo.com. Thank you for your support.

JMJ,

Ben Douglass